The planned remake of the William Golding masterpiece, "Lord of the Flies," just generated social media backlash. The main point of contention is throwing in an all-female cast to portray the main characters stranded on an island. Critics and book lovers lamented that it totally misses the point.
Others have slammed the remake for featuring women in a film project that just so happens to be created by two men. Scott McGehee and David Siegel are set to write and direct the "Lord of the Flies" reboot. Featuring women in the reboot, as McGehee stated, may help viewers see the story in a new light.
Critics pointed out that featuring an all-girl cast may lead to ignoring the central theme of the original novel. The book tackles interrelated themes of survival, human nature, interpersonal conflict, violence, and social order.
Films about young individuals becoming stranded on an island have been done countless times. Using a classic book such as "Lord of the Flies" as takeoff point but flipping the gender dynamics, some people opined, tends to lead to different takeaway messages.
"Lord of the Flies," as book lovers of varying ages know, is a great adventure story. Like other well-written novels, it is engaging and is laden with embedded meanings.
The reason why William Golding, who died in 1993, wrote about boys instead of girls is that gender was crucial to the larger point of his novel, The New York Times reported.
Boys are scaled-down images of society and of civilization. It has nothing to do with equality at all, he had asserted.
Barrage of criticisms
It is not the first time that the novel has been adapted for the silver screen. Yet mounting criticisms even before the movie project has gained traction may signal some much-needed changes, not only for the film itself but also for the path that several Hollywood filmmakers have taken -- replicating original material.
Indeed, gender reversals in film remakes have become a norm, rather than an exception in Hollywood. Clear-cut illustrations are the reboots of "Ghostbusters" featuring a female cast, and "Ocean's 8."
Call for female-driven projects
Netizens have expressed strong sentiments on Twitter about the upcoming "Lord of the Flies" film adaptation.
Writers and book enthusiasts were quick to comment that a remake of "Lord of the Flies" with an all-female cast will not fly nor make sense because if you want to retain the essence of the book, it just could not be conveyed with an all women cast.
English features editor Raine Beckford expressed his aversion to even watching a film with a major twist. He expressed that representation matters and made a shout-out for more female-driven film projects on Twitter.